Bacterial Radio, first part of ongoing project envisioning many different kinds of electrical circuits created with bacteria. Circuits are formed from bacteria modified with genes that impart electrical qualities to cells. Bacteria cloned with variants of gene from marine sponges (Tethya aurantia) to chelate electronic circuits on growth media. Variants of Tethya gene optimized to chelate metallic conductors and semiconductors. Genetically modified bacteria and small amounts of growth media containing metal salts embedded in non-conductive materials and induced to plate electrical circuits. Bacterial Radio signifies artistic use of these materials to render music, voice and intellectual content off the air. Bacterial Radio represents safe and pollution-free alternatives to environmentally threatening practices.

This system uses a computer controlled four-axis positioning table to “print” intricate bio-architectural constructions out of moss and seeds. Suspended in a clear gel growth medium, the moss continues to grow and the seeds sprout. The algorithmically-generated patterns drawn by the system are based on the Eden growth model and leverage mathematical representations of both urban growth and cellular growth, thereby connecting the concept of city with the concept of the organism. This project is working to make concrete the idea of dynamic and fluid computer space altering the expression and formation of a living and growing biological material, via its collaboration with an engineering mechanism.

This system uses lasers to scan an onion plant from one of three angles. As the plant is scanned a fuse deposition modeler in real-time creates a plastic model based on the information collected. The device repeats this process every twenty-four hours scanning from a different angle. After a new model is produced the system advances a conveyor approximately 17 inches so the cycle can repeat. The result is a series of plastic models illustrating the growth of the plant from three different angles.

Despite its quaint reputation, agriculture has always been an early adapter of technology. This is evident from the beginning of mechanization with the cotton gin, McCormick's Reaper, tractors, hybrid seed, to genetically engineered plants that protect themselves and grow in arid environments. Yields have grown quickly, but demand from developing countries and population growth are growing faster
We know that we need to continue to find ways to increase the productivity of land on a per unit basis. Agriculture has started to add computerization and automation to the current machinery with things like GPS based precision farming systems that can autonomously drive tractors, monitor yield, and apply fertilizer. However, these aftermarket add-ons are built around the single most expensive and awkward part of the equipment. The person controlling the tractor.
Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm and game theory.

The curtain integrates an efficient organic living carbon sink into an interior space.
Spore 1.1 is a self-sustaining ecosystem for a rubber tree plant purchased at Home Depot. In this project, Home Depot is responsible for the plant in two ways: first, an unconditional guarantee to replace any plant they sell, for up to one year; second through an implied cybernetic contract. This second responsibility is the creative content for the work, where the economic health of Home Depot is transitioned through a series of physical computing techniques to a mechanism for controlling the watering of the rubber tree.
An onboard computer uses a Wi-Fi connection to access Home Depot stock quotes once per week, keeping a database of the week’s ending stock values. From the fluctuations in Home Depot stock, programs and circuitry connected to the rubber tree are controlled accordingly. If the company does well by showing stock growth, so does the plant - if the company suffers losses, Spore 1.1 does not get watered.

SUPER KINGDOM can be viewed as a social engineering experiment for animals - a new community in the making referencing despot's palaces, gated community developments such as Alphaville in Brazil and the fortified exclusivity afforded to the wealthy and super-rich - all designed to keep urban reality at bay.
CONTEXT
Super Kingdom is a reference to both the utopian imaginary and biological taxonomic hierarchy and is a sculptural installation of animal 'show homes' in a woodland environment, based on the architecture of despot's palaces. It reflects both human and animal hierarchy as territorial relationship to landscape; is informed by changing habitat, the displacement of animals as a consequence of urban development and conservationist strategy, and global concerns about fluid populations and porous borders.

The Tissue Culture & Art Project (TC&A;) was set to explore the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression. We are investigating our relationships with the different gradients of life through the construction/growth of a new class of object/being - that of the Semi-Living. These are parts of complex organisms which are sustained alive outside of the body and coerced to grow in predetermined shapes. These evocative objects are a tangible example that brings into question deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, concept of self, and the position of the human in regard to other living beings and the environment. We are interested in the new discourses and new ethics/epistemologies that surround issues of partial life and the contestable future scenarios they are offering us.

Professor Kawaguchi is an expert on the "GROWTH model," a self-organizing method to give form to one's rich imagination or to develop one's formative algorithm of a complex life form. As the art or a time progression, a program generates a form and this form is allowed to grow systematically according to a set formula. Howwever, this "GROWTH Model" is not based on a static process that allows constructive mathematics to take its course.
Though observation of eddies and spirals, repetitions of simple form of inner mathematical principles, which are hidden behind the seemingly complex outlook of living creatures, are deduced. Placing subtle forms like that of a conch shell as a starting point, the shapes of ammonite, nautilus, tentacles, plant vines and coral become visual references for this model.